I ran across a little booklet today published by the Seventh-day Adventist religion, titled “STEPS TO JESUS” by Ellen G. White (1827-1915). The booklet (according to the back cover) targets people in the military: “Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine.” To get right to the point in exposing Ellen White as a satanic false prophet, let me point out right away that she mixes discipleship with salvation. SDA's DON'T teach salvation by grace!!! In the following quote from Miss White's book, “Steps To Christ,” she teaches Lordship Salvation (which is a works-based false plan of salvation)...
“That so-called faith in Christ which professes to release men from the obligation of obedience to God, is not faith, but presumption. 'By grace are ye saved through faith.' But 'faith, if it hath not works, is dead.'”
SOURCE: Ellen G. White, Steps To Christ, p. 61
So “faith” according to Ellen White is not simply trusting upon the Gospel to be saved. In addition, Miss White teaches that faith encompasses all of the obligations of living the Christian life. The Bible says that a faith without works is “dead,” but it is still faith. A dead faith is still faith! In other words, if people don't see holiness in you, then they won't be convinced of your faith, because it is a dead faith; however, God still honors your faith in His only begotten Son, and you cannot ever lose eternal life.
Ellen White is employing the typical double-talk we often see from false teachers. In one place in her book she teaches that salvation is by God's grace through faith alone, without works; but then she teaches in another place (as I just quoted to you) that faith without works is not genuine faith. That is a corrupt plan of salvation, which superficially professes the simplicity that is in Christ by faith alone, but then perverts the Gospel by requiring discipleship in order to be saved.
On page 95 of her book she states:
“The Lord will not hear us if we hold on to any known sin. But He always hears the prayers of a person who is sorry for sin. When all known wrongs are made right, we may believe that God will answer our prayers. Our own goodness will never cause God to love us. It is the goodness of Jesus that will save us; it is His blood that will make us clean. Yet we have a work to do in meeting the conditions for being accepted.”
SOURCE: Ellen G. White, “Steps To Jesus,” p. 95 (adapted from “Steps To Christ”)
That last line speaks volumes concerning Ellen White's true perverted theology. She clearly believes that salvation requires human effort, as she errantly states: “Yet we have a work to do in meeting the conditions for being accepted” by God. Ellen details these conditions throughout the book: prayer, love, forgiveness, repentance, rejoicing, consecration, et cetera. Seventh-day Adventists have a similar view as Calvinists, that is, they see discipleship and salvation as being so closely related that one cannot exist without the other. Biblically, you can have one without the other. In John 12:42-43, many of the chief rulers believed on Jesus, but they did not confess Him. They were saved, but not disciples. And contrawise, Judas was a disciple, but he was not saved. Sadly, Judas died in his sins and went to Hell forever to burn. Jesus said in John 6:70 that Judas had a devil in him, yet he was a follower of Christ. As you can plainly conclude, not everyone who invites Jesus into their life is a born-again Christian. Are you my friend?
Ellen White's satanic writings are permeated with self-righteousness and Lordship Salvation. For example, on page 30 she states:
“Christ is ready to set us free from sin, but He does not force us to stop sinning and choose His way. If we do not desire to be free, if we will not accept His grace, what more can He do? We will destroy ourselves by turning away from His love. Paul wrote, 'listen! This is the hour to receive God's favor. Today is the day to be saved!”
SOURCE: Ellen G. White, “Steps To Jesus,” p. 95 (adapted from “Steps To Christ”)
Carefully notice that Ellen is talking about salvation in the preceding statement. Clearly, she believes that a person must “stop sinning and choose His way” to get saved. This is not the Gospel. I can sum up the entire religion of Seventh-day Adventism with one statement, which is: Satan's greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without ever being born again!
Seventh-day Adventism (SDA) is one of the most difficult religious cults to expose, because Ellen White's writing style is so prolific and richly filled with Scriptural references, albeit wrestled and out of context. The average person is woefully ignorant of the Scriptures, and that includes the average professed Christian, sadly. For this very reason, many believers have errantly concluded that Seventh-day Adventists are true Christians. I tell you confidently that they are not! No one is saved who adds living the Christian life to the Gospel. Anyone who adds discipleship to salvation is still unsaved. For an excellent book on the subject, I highly recommend reading the awesome .pdf book, “I NEVER KNEW YOU: THE COMING GREAT WHITE THRONE OF JUDGMENT AND HOW TO AVOID IT!” by Michael P. Bowen.
Like so many errant theologians today, Seventh-day Adventists wrongly understand “repentance” to mean “a change of mind that leads to a change of life,” but that is not what the Biblical meaning is. The Greek noun “metanoia” in the Bible just means “a change of mind.”
Here's one of the best quotes on repentance that I've read by Dr. Harry Ironside (1876-1951)...
“Which comes first, repentance or faith? In Scripture we read, 'Repent ye, and believe the gospel.' Yet we find true believers exhorted to 'repent, and do the first works.' So intimately are the two related that you cannot have one without the other. The man who believes God repents; the repentant soul puts his trust in the Lord when the Gospel is revealed to him. Theologians may wrangle over this, but the fact is, no man repents until the Holy Spirit produces repentance in his soul through the truth. No man believes the Gospel and rests in it for his own salvation until he has judged himself as a needy sinner before God. And this is repentance.” (Except Ye Repent, p. 16)
If you didn't know any better, you
could read Ellen G. White's writings and easily fail to see through her
facade. She is not a Christian, but masquerades as one (2nd Corinthians
11:13-15). Ellen G. White had religion without the new birth! There is no
question that she was devoutly religious, and confident in what she believed
and taught, but like so many who wrestle the Word of God to their own
destruction, she simply doesn't know what she is talking about.
Ye Must Be Born Again!
John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
You can posses all the positive virtues of a good Christian, and yet still go straight to Hell when you die. You can attend church faithfully, give away all you own to the poor, tithe generously, sing in a choir, memorize the Bible, even tell other people about Jesus, and yet still go straight to Hell when you die.
If you want Scripture evidence, please take a look at Matthew 7:21-23. These religious people preached in Jesus' name. They did many wonderful works in Jesus' name. They even cast out devils in Jesus' name. Tragically, they DIDN'T do the will of the Father to be saved, which according to John 6:40 is to believe on the name of Jesus Christ. Serving Jesus Christ is a road to Hell without believing on Jesus Christ. Those foolish religious people were trusting in their own human efforts to please God, when they should have been trusting in the imputed righteous of God through faith in the Lamb of God.
Philippians 3:9, “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”
Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith. God will not save anyone who is trying to be saved, He will only save those who are trusting to be saved. Please don't go to Hell.
